Sony VR Headset/Project Morpheus/PlayStation VR
It is a bit muddled with the reuse of optional components. Probably just go with headset and some decent communication, maybe headset+Move if that's the IO of choice. Stores can create bundles then. Perhaps also a VR bundle.
Isn't the camera required for tracking ?
$200 seems low for a 1080p 120hz panel plus the break out box and the frame interloper hardware. I would think $300 for the head set , $400 for the bundle
I mean option to the ownership of PS4. You'll have some PS4 owners with the camera (the fools!) and some without. Bundling the camera with the headset would be a waste for those who own it, but a potential missing requirement for those who do.
I think this is the first time I've seen you argue that a BOM is higher than the rest of us! Usually we're saying Kinect or Hololens or whatever is expensive and you're saying it's $50.
I think $300 at least because VR can charge a premium. That's £200, so £250 with VAT etc. That's not astronomical for a bleeding-edge, totally new and unique experience.
Incidentally I've no idea what the BOM would be and how limiting. I don't know what the panel costs or how high-speed displays are obtained. If they need their own production run and aren't 60 fps panels with some electronic steroids, the cost must be a lot higher. Break out box and frame interpolator hardware will be less than Kinect's internals I reckon (small ASIC).
As a reference, the 5.7 Note4 display plus touchscreen/glass was estimated at $66 when it launched. It has the same area and about the same number of cells as morpheus, and also the same pixels per seconds (but 3 elements per pixels, so more column drivers?). Morpheus ditch the gorilla-glass and the touchscreen, and it comes much later which means the yield of that pixel pitch should have improved. So my wild guess would be $50. Another $50 for the rest of the electronics, and another $50 for optics, platic, cabling, assembly, etc... My big question is about the optics, as morpheus looks like it has an AR coating, which is expensive.
$150 bom would allow $200 for the headset and let the retailers make bundles, at some profit margin.
A single panel means a single driver, this could provide a small cost reduction vs oculus or valve. But sony still have an additional processor box to pay for...
The camera have been in production for a while and it was $18 bom at launch. They should at least drop the price down to 49 or 39 now.
The DS4 is already VR ready, which is another cost advantage. Move should remain optional, as all the big games like Project Cars or GT7 don't need move. The big question is what will third parties want as a controller for all three platforms.
Valve needs to make a profit.
Oculus have promised "whatever is costs us to make it, that's what we're going to sell it for."
Sony might sell it at very little profit, and let retailers have a small margin to push it.
Is Valve pretty much fucked and can't compete on price?
$150 bom would allow $200 for the headset and let the retailers make bundles, at some profit margin.
A single panel means a single driver, this could provide a small cost reduction vs oculus or valve. But sony still have an additional processor box to pay for...
The camera have been in production for a while and it was $18 bom at launch. They should at least drop the price down to 49 or 39 now.
The DS4 is already VR ready, which is another cost advantage. Move should remain optional, as all the big games like Project Cars or GT7 don't need move. The big question is what will third parties want as a controller for all three platforms.
Valve needs to make a profit.
Oculus have promised "whatever is costs us to make it, that's what we're going to sell it for."
Sony might sell it at very little profit, and let retailers have a small margin to push it.
Is Valve pretty much fucked and can't compete on price?
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So OVR is currently $350. I suppose there could be a 'price war' with Sony undercutting OVR. A $200 headset would be far more desirable than a $300 headset. Factoring camera costs and such, perhaps $200 for Morpheus and then the rest will be the price? I suppose Sony stands to make plenty back from the sale of VR software and I imagine VR films (if they aren't making some VR content at Sony Pictures now, they're fools!). I don't see how OVR can be sold it at cost without becoming a charity.
My guess is that facebook will try a war of attrition to kill off competitors on the PC space, because they are the first to have said they'd sell at cost. Sony doesn't have to follow as they don't compete there.
I still think the wildcard is what MS will do for XB1, if they do nothing morpheus can be sold at a little profit. Sony's track record is to avoid price wars, so even if MS comes out with a low cost VR, or oculus partnership, sony could still be comfortable with a $50 more expensive headset.
I still think the wildcard is what MS will do for XB1, if they do nothing morpheus can be sold at a little profit. Sony's track record is to avoid price wars, so even if MS comes out with a low cost VR, or oculus partnership, sony could still be comfortable with a $50 more expensive headset.
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Is there even format for VR films? I know DVD and Blu-ray support angles but that's pretty limited. But just being able to watch a Blu-ray fully immersed will be good for some.
There exist VR firms making content and Google + GoPro just announced a project. You only need a 360 degree FOV in your image (those Quicktime virtual tour, move you mouse to look around type videos), so it can be distributed as download or on disc. Resolution may be questionable though as you're fitting 360 degrees into 1080p. Probably wants a 4k format for disc distribution. But downloadable/streamable content is easy to provide and support in whatever format Sony wants on their own console's player.
I'm fairly certain Sony mentioned at GDC 2015 that 60>120conversion and timewarping is performed on PS4 itself and the end of rendering pipeline. So that external processing box should have same functionality as the one from Oculus, creation of new feed for un-distrorted image that can be sent to the HDTV/monitor.
Does oculus have a processor that unwarps? I only have tried dk2, which didn't...
Morpheus also have a sound processor In the box, but we don't know how powerful it is. It has to unload the SoC in a significant way to warrant the effort.
Last year the prototype was lcd and had three processors in the external box, but they said they were considering switching to oled (they did), and removing the FRC (they did) and removing the optical correction (they didn't), the 3rd processor was for 3d audio which nobody talks about.
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/03...nt-processors-could-still-get-an-oled-screen/
It would be wise to keep it, to free up the poor little CPU. Everybody is picking on the CPU but nobody ever asked him if he wanted to do audio processing, he's tired of this shit. He needs help!
http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/03...nt-processors-could-still-get-an-oled-screen/
It would be wise to keep it, to free up the poor little CPU. Everybody is picking on the CPU but nobody ever asked him if he wanted to do audio processing, he's tired of this shit. He needs help!
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Sony have said in dev presentations that the Morpheus will have 3D audio positioning technology by Sony.
Gpu work such as amd's true audio?
Edit: details details details lol.
Could be exaclty like true audio just not on the gpu, just like true audio. Oops.
More likely a 7.1 to stereo sound processing unit.
Why not just mix it properly to stereo in the first place though? Taking a pre-processed 7.1 mix, adding some low-pass filters and mixing down to stereo isn't really offloading anything from the PS4, it's just adding a half-baked HRTF stage after already doing the main spatialization heavy lifting on the PS4. IMO this entire idea of trying to extend the graphics and audio processing pipelines across an HDMI cable onto an external box seems costly and wrong-headed.
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